"Food, medical and education, these are three sectors perhaps almost immune to any kind of decline, slowdown or closure" --- this was what I used to believe even a few months ago. But the current ongoing pandemic Covid 19 changed many things of this world including my belief as well.
Today the education sector of not only India but of the whole world is so worsly affected which was just beyond any imagination or perception. And impact of Covid 19 on education sector of India is such perhaps for the first time in the history of this country. Time to time this world has faced many calamities and disasters, but the way Covid 19 disrupted the whole global life including education is unbelievable. I cannot recall such a global calamity in which almost the whole of the world was forced to shut down all schools, colleges and universities for an indefinite period of time. We have seen epidemics, earthquakes and tsunamis, storms and wars….but hardly anything disrupted so large extent of global population to so large extent of magnitude.
Covid 19 spread all around the world at very high speed. Our education systems were not ready or equipped for adjusting with such fast paced changes in world order. The result is very grim, resulting in partial or total disruption of education processes. India does not yet have the education infrastructure as they are in the developed countries. So for developing countries like India the situation is more serious. Here the educations of a huge mass of students are almost totally disrupted for a seemingly indefinite period of time.
185 countries….about 1.38 billion students…..this is the extent of damage done by Covid 19. It affected more than 185 countries which resulted in more than 90% closure of educational institutions impacting the education and future of some 1.38 billion students [1]. India accounts for world’s largest education system with more than 15 lakh schools and 50,000 higher education institutions and here Covid 19 impacted more than 32 crore students according to an UNESCO estimate [2] !!
So these are the figures of damage in education sector of India till now. So can we hope that situations are going to get better soon and we can make up the damages to our best capacity? Well no one knows this answer ! Only if a vaccine for Covid 19 successfully appears in the market at such economic viability such that almost every Indian can be provided then we can expect a way out of the situation. But still now no one knows when such a vaccine can become successful and available here. Without a vaccine I don’t see many chances for our education sector to return to it’s previous rhythm any sooner. But this I and anybody can predict that more days we will spend in uncertainty more damages will keep happening to our education system. And I am afraid that may be some damages can even be irreversible at least next few years to may be many decades.
COVID 19 IMPACT ON INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM – THE DAMAGES
Let me now try to access some of the most prominent damages that Covid 19 induced into our education system.This is the most direct and prominent damage done by the pandemic. It forced the central government and all the state governments to completely close all schools, colleges, universities and institutions. This sudden closure led to withdrawal of crores of students from their regular study schedules. This can demotivate many students from studies and this break of rhythm and demotivation can continue even after the pandemic is over. Already we know that leaving a handful of meritorious students who really enjoy studies and have aims and goals for the future, most of the other students feel very comfortable and relieved if asked not to study. So you can understand to what extent the education of such a majority of students are at stake for now and even for quite some time after the pandemic is over.
Experiences in my life taught me that Newton’s law of inertia also acts on human mind and behavior in one way or another. So students on study can be expected to remain in study and students out of study can be expected to remain out of study for quite some time. Great effort and force from teachers and guardians may be required to get such demotivated students to get into track again. And also in most of the cases, such levels of motivational forces are not available either from students or from parents which may lead to either very low quality of educational development or may be even a rise in dropout percentages.
Entrance examinations and admissions are not going on in their normal process and rhythm and in most cases are totally on hold due to the impact of Covid 19. This can result in valuable year loss for many deserving students. Year loss can increase pressure on institutions in future as fresh students and back students both will be needed to accomodate. But that may create a lot of stress on our education system and thus give rise to many sorts of unhealthy competition which is neither good nor desirable for the future of students of our country.
Pandemic Covid 19 also forced schools, colleges and institutions to postpone or even cancel their term and semestral examinations. In many cases promotions in next semester or class are perpetually awarded to the students. This can seriously impact and compromise the quality control and benchmarking of students.
In many states board examinations are either postponed or not at all taken due the fear of spreading of Covid 19 during exam gatherings. Some states tried to figure out alternative processes such as online examinations and so on. These disruptions and deviations of regular bonafied procedures of board exams can significantly reduce student’s academic qualities which are already in a downfalling graph due to distractions like gaming softwares, internet, social media, etc.
The discrepancies and compromises of examination processes as I discussed above happened due to the impact of Covid 19 on the education sector of India having an even more long term impact on students’ career. Even after decades from now, perhaps when Covid 19 will either not exist or may not to be considered as a major medical threat due to developments in vaccines and medicines, still doubts about eligibility and credibility of students passing boards or semester in 2020 will remain for long, if not forever. This can have a very negative impact on interview and recruitment of these students.
Scared by the pandemic, almost all nursery and primary schools as well as play-houses shut their doors for indefinite periods of time. Toddlers and children brain develop fast and these schools help their brain development through various educational activities and games. Even home tutors are not allowed to continue helping these children grow due to the fear of infection of Covid 19. This can very negatively impact the development and academic performance of many child in their future years. This can become a very long term impact of Covid 19 on the future of our education system.
Considering the depth and importance of this issue I am planning for a separate article for this. There I would try to figure out the extent of damage that can happen to the future generations of students of India due to the impact of Covid 19 in this year and perhaps also next year if a vaccine does not become functional and available. I would also try to explore some viable alternatives that parents can adopt to minimize damages to their child’s brain and academic developments in that article.
(To get notified about that article and many other relevant articles on educational developments as they get published…. please subscribe and enlist your email id)
Higher education of India is not only limited within the boundaries of the country. Many students from India go to the US, UK, Australia and many other countries in Europe and Asia for higher education. In the United States, UK and Australia there are many universities where Indian students contribute to a considerably large portion of a classroom. Now after this pandemic of Covid 19, these abroad countries are so badly affected that neither students nor parents can have the courage to take the risk of travelling to those countries for any purpose, say it education or tourism or anything else. Many countries imposed sudden lockdowns to contain the very rapidly spreading corona virus and many Indian students faced some very tough situations during the time of lockdown. The situation was like neither they can return homeland India nor they can comfortably and safely stay back there. They and their parents passed weeks and months of immense stress before the governments intervened to chalk out some home return solutions for them.
Students and parents are not going to forget this stressful period very soon. This fear and scare will prevent many to return or join any foreign university for higher education. So if there arrives no vaccine then there arises no question of abroad studies. Even if we get a vaccine for Covid 19 then also where there is any guarantee that another pandemic equal to Covid 19 or may be even more deadly will not appear again? Many parents and students will take a long time to forget this era of Covid 19 which will impact the rate of students to foreign countries not only in coming year or two but perhaps may be 5 years or a decade if not even more.
Now many will feel or say that this is a good option for India. There will be no brain drain and all the intelligent and meritorious students of our homeland will remain at home. Now I would like to ask the question, whether such a thing will be beneficial for our country or damaging at both individual and nation level?
I will try to find out the answer of this question in another article about impact of Covid 19 on education of international students….
(please subscribe and enlist your email id for notifications of new articles. Please ignore if already subscribed. Thank you. )
If we think that students are the only stakeholders of the education system then I think that will be a great injustice to teachers. Actually if there is a student then there must be a teacher otherwise who will be teaching him?
This Covid 19 pandemic did a lot of damage to the teachers also and perhaps in many cases the damages are even more than that of the students. Students are deprived of studies but in many cases teachers and faculties are deprived of food. Yes it is true that government teachers and professors are still getting their salary but can we expect the same for that huge number of private sector teachers and faculties? How many months can a small private school or institution can feed their teachers and faculties without any income from ongoing classes and new admissions? And what about that huge number of private tutor and coaching centers?
I would prefer not to dig deeper in this grim story of teachers, tutors and faculties of our country but I expect that as a sensitive reader you can assume.
More than 15 lakh schools and 50,000 institutions….if that is the count then we know that all of them are not under the shelter of the government, central or state. And also not all of them are huge premium international schools which can survive long without regular income. So what about the rest? Many small schools, institutions, tutorials and coaching centers will cease to exist after the pandemic Covid 19 is over ! Suppose a private nursery school or a coaching center runs on a rented property. So can we expect them to pay the monthly rent month after month without any fees collection from old and new students? Then what will be the most likely outcome you or I will find after this pandemic will be over? You know the answer I suppose.
And the next obvious question is, in a highly populated country like India there is always a stress on its education system due to the steeply increasing number of students every year. So moreover if many schools and institutions cease to exist then that will only add to that stress, so what will be the future of a huge portion of students of this country?
Many government primary and secondary schools run a program by the name “mid-day meal” which used to feed many poor students with at least one nutritious meal per day. But as the lockdown began and schools got closed, students are also missing their meals. Government did tried to distribute some uncooked rice and vegetables for the students to their parents but I don’t expect that the students are getting that nutritious food at their home as they used to get it in their school because many of them belongs to poverty stricken, BPL enlisted home where there is already always scanty of food.
Problems and challenges of online education in India:
The first and most important challenges are related to infrastructure of students. If we only consider urban cities and metros then that would not be a justice to the huge number of students who live and study in rural sectors. Many even belong to remote areas of our country. In our country of more than 1.8 billion, 67% of the population lives in rural sectors [3]. So when we have to develop any nation level universal method or policy then we have to keep these figures in our mind.
Most of the students from rural sectors of India do not have access to personal computers, smartphone and fast internet connectivity. So online education will obviously not going to work for them. And yet no alternative method also are available to continue education of those rural students in Covid 19 lockdown as well.
If government and large organizations intervene with right steps and measures then the obstacle I discussed in point 1 can be minimized. Those deprived rural students must be provided with infrastructure and appropriate training to use that infrastructure to use it for online education. But that on one hand requires a lot of monetary funds and on the other hand lot of time also. Covid 19 was so fast spreading and immediate lockdown was so obvious that getting that time for transition from traditional class to online class is beyond question. And after this pandemic, national economy as well as global economy will need much time to arrange such huge funding for equipping rural students for online education.
Not only individual students’ infrastructure but national and state level infrastructure also are in many cases not supportive of using modern technology and devices for online education. For example, there are many rural sectors, many remote areas where still power supply is absent, even a decent mobile connectivity is not available so no need to speak of a fast 3G or 4G internet connectivity. So until and unless these infrastructure are developed there are no hope for online education in vast areas of our rural sector.
Though the picture of rural India is more challenging but still there are no reasons to think that urban sectors are out of obstacles and challenges. One of the most important problems that can equally haunt both the urban and rural sectors are about teachers’ training for online education. Teachers in many cases are not conversant with use of mobile phones, personal computers, apps and softwares for education purposes, especially online education. Even those who use smartphones and social media of different types can be very inefficient to conduct an online class in a video conferencing software or addressing a student query and solving it online. And the most important point is learning the technology and learning the whole of pedagogy is necessarily not the same thing. Conducting an online class, educating and motivating a student, preparing all the online content to make learning a good and successful experience cannot be equally adopted by all teachers upto a benchmark untill and unless there are specific courses for teachers also.
As I have said earlier that online class and online education does not carry the same meaning. And just at this point many schools, institutions and teachers are making a big mistake. Online class is a component of online education but not the whole of it. From online content development to online examination all falls under the domain of online education. Still many teachers and organizations think that just conducting a few online classes in any popular video conferencing app or software will be sufficient for students to undergo online education. Nothing can be a bigger mistake than this.
Most of our academic contents like text books, guidebooks and notes, suggestions and test papers, everything are developed targeting the traditional classroom of brick and cement and not targeting the online virtual classroom. So naturally these books may not be equally comfortable and effective for online classes as well. So proper content development targeting online education is another challenging part of the story.
In another article I have plans to discuss about online education and relevant content structure that can benefit the teachers to develop content for their respective students. Keep in touch to get notified about upcoming new articles.
(please subscribe and enlist your email id for notifications of new articles. Please ignore if already subscribed. Thank you. )
As I have already said that online education is not the same game as what we know or call online class, so it is evident that there will be a lot of other tasks and services under the name of online education. Tasks such as content distribution and monitoring, online assessment and examinations, problem solving and discussion boards, student management, course management and so many other heads can come into play when we are talking about real online education. All these and more are not practically possible without a dedicated software known as Learning Management System or LMS.
As I said above that for conducting an online education program effectively LMS is an indispensable tool. But good quality learning management systems are usually too costly for many small schools, institutions, coaching centers and individual teachers. If again the government or any big organization steps in to provide a common platform for management of online education at free of cost or very nominal cost then we can overcome this problem.
This is one of the biggest problems of online education. There are no ways to carry out assessments or examinations that can give full credibility and reliability as we have got in normal classroom exams. There are no standardized methods of conducting such exams very effectively.
Education should follow a minimum benchmark quality uniformly throughout a state or preferably the whole country. But still now no such common and universal quality benchmark exists, so we can see the quality and practices of online education vary to quite abnormally large extent from institution to institution and teacher to teacher. This is not at all a very favourable pedagogy for large scale education system of a nation.
Still now we hardly use public media like radio, television and newspapers for educational purposes. Schools, colleges, institutions and the government all need to cooperate and use the huge power of the media not just for political news and entertainment industry news purposes but much more for educational purposes.
How these mass media can be very effectively used for the benefit of teacher and students that will form a matter of research in itself. I have plans of writing such a dedicated article for use of media in education. Keep watch on tbe notifications
(please subscribe and enlist your email id for notifications of new articles. Please ignore if already subscribed. Thank you. )
Online education has to be done from your room at your home. But every home and every neighbourhood are not equally suitable for education, especially online education. In the traditional education system, schools, colleges, tutorials isolate the students at least for hours of the day from their respective environments and surroundings. Thus that isolation expose them to a common environment where all students are supposedly equally delivered with education. This isolation to a common interest point is very suitable for the psychology of education.
In pure online education in most cases students are their own masters. No one to rectify behavioral errors of students that can hinder their academic progress. In some cases parents can play a vital role but can we expect every parent at every home are equally conscious and educated to guide their child to a successful academic career? The more will increase popularity of online education, more distractive and destructive power also the same student will enjoy in the form of high end devices, high speed internet and of course the huge collection of distractions including social media and online gaming.
Health issues are another serious issue that can easily arise with students spending hours staring at their electronic screens. I think that a students’ travel to and fro the school and tutorial also adds some benefit to his health and growth which will be lacking in case of study from home. In that case students must be having mandatory physical training classes and that can prove much beneficial for them.
I have already discussed different obstacles and challenges for online education in India. But beside that it is also true that the trend says that days will come when online education will become a norm for all students. Statistics also support this theory. It is predicted that by 2024 smartphone and fast mobile internet can reach around 85% homes of India. If that is the case then online education can also become an easily viable option one day…..but that is a prediction we have to wait 4 years for it. But Covid 19 or any other such future pandemic will not wait for that long I suppose.
I would like to end this article with a view that I hold personally and may be a few of you can be agreeing with me. I think that “only online” education will not be as successful, reliable and effective as our traditional brick-and-cement classroom pedagogy. But with changing time, trend and world order online education is also very relevant. How is the way out? Hybrid education or mix mode can be a better solution to this problem. Balanced combination of online and offline classroom can become a more effective and successful choice in days to come.